Telephone controlled entertainment

ABSTRACT

Telephone based remote control is disclosed. In some embodiments, telephone based remote control includes presenting an interface on a cellular telephone for controlling a media source; receiving a user command for controlling the media source; and sending a control signal from the cellular telephone to the media source, wherein the control signal includes control information corresponding to the command, and wherein the media source outputs information based on the command.

CROSS REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/752,219 (Attorney Docket No. VML1P001C1), entitled TELEPHONECONTROLLED ENTERTAINMENT filed Jan. 6, 2004 which is continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/211,979, now U.S. Pat. No.6,697,467, entitled TELEPHONE CONTROLLED ENTERTAINMENT filed Aug. 1,2002, which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to entertainment systems. Morespecifically, a telephone controlled entertainment system is disclosed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The popularity of home entertainment is ever increasing, and the demandfor readily available content is greater than ever. Many of today'shomes are equipped with multiple electronic entertainment devices fordisplaying audio, video, graphics, text, images, etc. from a variety ofsources and formats. At the same time, personal computers have beengaining popularity as storage and playback devices for various mediaformats.

Most of the electronic entertainment devices have some form of remotecontrol. However, as the number of devices goes up, managing multipleremote controls has become a challenge for most users who wish to get tothe content they want easily and quickly. Universal remote controls areone solution to this problem. However, many of the existing remotecontrols are hard to use due to the numerous buttons designed toaccomplish various special tasks. Some universal remote controls aremore minimal in button design but requires the user to programspecialized “macros” to accomplish different tasks. There are alsoattempts of universal remote control design with voice recognition, butso far the devices have the same problem of being hard to program andonly have a limited set of functions.

Furthermore, existing universal remote controls operate within a limitedrange of the controlled devices. It is useful to allow the user toaccess certain devices when the user is away from where the device islocated. For example, the user may wish to set his recording deviceswhile away from home.

It is useful to consolidate the functions of various electronicentertainment devices and provide the user easy access to the contents,without having an additional remote control to a household alreadycluttered with them. It is also useful to provide more advancedfunctions to help the users manage their media contents. It is alsodesirable to overcome the range limitations of the existing universalremote controls to allow the user to access the devices remotely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be readily understood by the followingdetailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,wherein like reference numerals designate like structural elements, andin which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a telephone controlled mediaplayback system.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of how the telephone keypad is mapped tovarious control functions.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operating steps of the system.

FIG. 4 shows details of the interpret control information step.

FIG. 5 illustrates details of the search for interpretation step.

FIG. 6 illustrates details of the verify command step.

FIG. 7 illustrates details of the outputting translated command step.

FIG. 8 illustrates details of the optional activate voice cancellationstep.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the noise cancellation process describedabove. The top diagram is an output waveform.

FIG. 10 illustrates details of the verify command execution step.

FIG. 11 illustrates the process used to handle customizationinformation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implementedin numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, or acomputer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or acomputer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical orelectronic communication links. It should be noted that the order of thesteps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of theinvention.

A detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments of theinvention are provided below along with accompanying figures thatillustrate by way of example the principles of the invention. While theinvention is described in connection with such embodiments, it should beunderstood that the invention is not limited to any embodiment. On thecontrary, the scope of the invention is limited only by the appendedclaims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives,modifications and equivalents. For the purpose of example, numerousspecific details are set forth in the following description in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The presentinvention may be practiced according to the claims without some or allof these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technicalmaterial that is known in the technical fields related to the inventionhas not been described in detail so that the present invention is notunnecessarily obscured.

A telephone controlled media system is disclosed. In one embodiment, thesystem uses a telephone connected to a computer to control a mediasource. The media source outputs information based on commands sent fromthe telephone. In one embodiment, the outputs are displayed on a deviceseparate from the telephone. In one embodiment, the telephone hasdisplay capabilities and the outputs are displayed on the telephoneitself. The control system allows for voice activated selection ofprogramming as well as overlaying commands input using the telephonebuttons during a regular telephone call. The system supports advancedfeatures for managing the user's media content.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a telephone controlled mediaplayback system. Element 100 is a telephone connected to computer 150via a direct connection 120 or a networked connection 125. The telephoneand the computer may have one of the two connections or both or may haveanother appropriate connection. There may be multiple instances oftelephone 100 in the system.

Connection 120 is a direct connection, which can be wireless, wired, ora combination of both. In one embodiment, telephone 100 is a cordlessphone, this connection may be a wire line between the base unit (notshown) and the computer, or a wireless connection between the telephoneand the base unit.

Connection 125 is a networked connection, where the telephone and thecomputer are connected via a network that routes signals between them.In one embodiment, the network includes a phone switch that connectsbetween the phone and the computer. In one embodiment, the networkincludes a voice over IP gateway that connects the phone to theInternet, and the computer is also connected to the Internet. In oneembodiment, the network may be a public switched telephone network(PSTN), a private branch exchange (PBX), a cellular network, or acombination thereof, and the computer is connected to a telephoneservice that connects to the network. In one embodiment, the userconnects to the computer by dialing up a telephone number associatedwith the computer. In other embodiments, the telephone may be connectedto the computer via other means.

The computer is used to interpret control information and route outputsignals. In some embodiments, its functions are built into a processorwithin the telephone. Thus, no separate computer is necessary andconnections 120 and 125 are not needed for these embodiments. For thepurposes of this specification, a computer separate from the telephoneis discussed, although the computer's functions can be built into thephone.

Control information (also referred to as instructions) is sent from thetelephone to the computer. After the computer decodes the controlinformation, it sends commands corresponding to the control informationto a media source 110. The media source comprises one or more devicesfor storing and/or outputting information. Examples of such devicesinclude CD/DVD jukebox, CD player, DVD player, VCR, DVR, memory orstorage device within the computer, storage external to the computer,other computers, MP3 players, satellite and cable receivers. The mediasource can be separate from the computer, or a part of the computer.

Connection 130 between computer 105 and media source 110 can be a wireline connection, a wireless connection, a connection via a network, acombination thereof, or any other suitable connection. In oneembodiment, the computer is equipped with an infrared control and sendsthe commands via infrared signals to the infrared receivers on the mediasource. In other embodiments, the media source and the computer areconnected to an Ethernet network or other type of network.

After the media source receives the commands, it retrieves theinformation corresponding to the command, and sends the informationeither to the computer or to output element 115. The informationincludes audio, video, graphics, text, images, etc. Element 115comprises one or more devices capable of displaying the informationreceived. Examples of such devices include speakers, television sets,monitors, plasma displays, etc. In one embodiment, the informationretrieved by the media source is first sent to the computer viaconnection 135, and then the computer forwards the information toaudio/video output 115 via connection 140. In one embodiment, theinformation is sent by the media source directly to output 115 viaconnection 145. In certain embodiments, the information is sent from themedia source simultaneously to the computer via connection 135 and tothe output via link 145. Connection 135, 140 and 145 can be direct linksor wireless links. In one embodiment, the connections are infraredconnections. Connections 130, 135, 140 and 145 are protocol independent,as long as the devices can communicate with each other via theseconnections. In some embodiments, the information is sent from the mediasource to the telephone, which has the capability to display theinformation received.

Output element 115 can also be used to output feedback information forthe user after the user sends a set of control information. Examples offeedback information include status information, error messages, searchresults, etc. The information is displayed on its own, or overlaid ontop of the output originated from the media source. The feedbackinformation displayed can be text, graphics, images, video, sound orcombinations thereof. Examples of information displayed include categoryinformation, search results, content listings, virtual keypad, etc. Inone embodiment, the feedback information is also sent to the telephone.

The user sends control information to the computer using voice, keypadon the telephone, or input devices associated with the telephone such astouch screen, navigation keys, etc. In one embodiment, voiceinstructions are sent by the telephone to the computer, via connection120 or 125. The computer has voice recognition software that capturesthe voice signal and decodes the information. In one embodiment, thetelephone has voice recognition software that captures the voice signaland decodes the information. In one embodiment, the control informationis entered using the keys on the telephone and sent to the computerusing signals appropriate for communication, for example analog signals,digital signals, optical signals, or dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF)tones. The computer software captures the electrical signals and decodesthe information. In one embodiment, a server accessible via a networkdecodes voice information for the system. In certain embodiments, thecontrol information is sent as a combination of both voice and keyentry, e.g., the user can say a movie title to select the content, andthen hit a key on the phone for playing the movie. In some embodiments,the user uses voice to control the system, and the telephone is omitted.Instead, a microphone is used for inputting voice commands.

The key based entries can be overlaid on top of the regular voicetransmission without affecting the normal operations of the telephone.For example, the user can be in the middle of a normal telephoneconversation, and at the same time pressing keys on the telephone forselecting song titles and playing them.

When the user chooses to use the keypad for sending control information,a virtual keypad can be displayed on output device 115 indicating themapping of the keys to their corresponding functions. FIG. 2 illustratesone example of how the telephone keypad is mapped to various controlfunctions. In other embodiments, the keys may be mapped to differentfunctions. While the figure shows the functions as words in thisembodiment, the keys may be shown as icons corresponding to theirfunctions. Other functions are mapped to keys in various embodiments,including, for example, a show or hide on screen display function and anext chapter/next track and previous chapter/previous track functionthat may be included with or separated from the fast forward and rewindfunctions.

Phone control functions may also include activating and navigating a DVDdisk menu and navigating and modifying a queue of media items. Voicecommands may be used in addition to key commands to executeplay/pause/stop or other media control functions and to skip to a trackor chapter number.

The twelve standard keys on the telephone are mapped to variousfunctions. In keypad 200, the star key (*) is a special activation key.In this embodiment, the activation key needs to be pressed first to putthe system in a mode ready for receiving control information, before theuser can use the 0-9 and pound keys for their special functions. 1 and 3keys correspond to “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” functions,respectively. These two functions are used to indicate the user'spreference for the content that is currently being displayed. “Thumbsup” means the user likes the content and “thumbs down” indicates theopposite. In certain embodiments, the user may hit the keys multipletimes to indicate the degree of preference. For example, hitting “thumbsup” multiple times consecutively indicates that the user really likeswhat is playing, hitting “thumbs up” once means the user is okay withwhat is playing, and hitting “thumbs down” multiple times means the userreally dislikes what is playing. The preference information is saved. Insome embodiments, when the item names are displayed, the items that havehigher positive preference are displayed on top.

The 2 key turns the volume up and the 8 key turns the volume down. The 7key mutes the volume when it is pressed for the first time. Pressing 7 asecond time turns muting off. The 4 key is for rewinding and the 6 keyis for fast forward. The 5 key is a modal key that controls twodifferent functions: play and pause. In one embodiment, when certaincontent is ready to be played, hitting the 5 key starts to play thecontent. During the play, hitting the 5 key again pauses it. The 9 keyimplements the stop function. The 0 key maps to a launch disc functionused for quickly starting DVD movies or other media. The pound key (#)disconnects the phone from the computer when the phone connects to thecomputer via a dial up connection.

In certain embodiments, the user presses the star key multiple times toenter a different function and keypad mapping. Keypad 202 maps the keysto a set of navigation functions. The 1 key maps to a home function thatbrings the user back to the beginning of the currently displayedcontent. The 7 key maps to an end function that brings to the end of thecurrently displayed content. The 2, 8, 4 and 6 keys correspond to up,down, left and right functions, respectively. The 3 and 9 keyscorrespond to the page up and page down functions respectively. The 5key maps to an enter function. The 0 key selects one item, and the poundkey selects all the items listed. The star key is still the activationkey, and pressing it one more time brings the keypad mapping back tothat of 200.

In certain embodiments, the telephone, the computer, or both areprogrammed to detect short time gap between consecutive keypad presses.The user can quickly press the same key twice (“double click”), or threetimes (“triple click”), to activate certain functions. For example, inone embodiment, the user enters a different function and keypad mappingby double clicking on the star key.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operating steps of the system.The flowchart starts at 300, where the computer detects that the phonehas been activated. In some embodiments, the computer detects that thephone has been activated when it receives a call made from thetelephone. In other embodiments, the activation may be indicated as asignal, such as the dial tone, sent to the computer when the phone isoff the hook. Other activation signals may include a signal from anintercom or a TCP/IP ping. 305 is an optional step for identifying theuser. The identification can be done in many different ways. In oneembodiment, the identification is simply the phone that is used. Inanother embodiment, the user is prompted to enter a password. In otherembodiments, the identification can be done using biometrics, such asthe user's voiceprint.

After the user has been identified, the system monitors input from thephone for an activation key at 310. The monitoring can be done either bythe computer or the phone itself. This is an optional step that puts thesystem in a mode ready for receiving control information input. Theactivation key can be a designated key on the keypad, such as the starkey described in a previous embodiment. A sequence of keys may also beused. It can also be a special phrase or keyword spoken by the user, forinstance the word “select”. After receiving the activation key, flowcontrol is transferred to the next step shown in step 315.

At 315 the system monitors for control information. The controlinformation includes a series of keys entered by the user, or a sequenceof words spoken, or both. In embodiments where step 310 is implemented,if there is no user input after a timeout period has passed, flowcontrol is transferred from step 315 back to step 310. Upon receivingthe control information, flow control is transferred to step 320.

At 320 the system interprets the control information received. In oneembodiment, the control information sent is a series of keys. Thecomputer processes the information to determine which command(s) thekeys correspond to. For example, the information may be “222”, whichcorresponds to turning the volume up three notches. In anotherembodiment, the control information is a sequence of words spoken by theuser. The computer's voice recognition software parses the sound signalsit receives to determine the corresponding command(s). For example, toplay a song titled “Let it be”, the user may say “music let it be”.Details of this step are discussed later.

At 325 the system verifies the command. This step will be discussed indetail later. If the command is determined to be invalid, flow controlis transferred back to step 310 if 310 is implemented, or to step 315 if310 is omitted. If the command is determined to be valid, flow controlis transferred on to next step 330. The system provides feedback to theuser as the command is being verified. The feedback can be providedvisually on the output, audibly on the output, visually on the user'stelephone, audibly on the user's telephone, or using a combination ofthese techniques.

At 330 the command is routed to an appropriate media source. Forexample, if the user has sent a command to play a song stored on a CD ina jukebox, the command is routed to the CD jukebox that contains the CD.In the following step 335, the command is translated to a code that isunderstood by the device to which the command is routed.

At 340 the computer outputs the translated command to the appropriatedevice. Once the device starts to play the content, the user's voiceinput may be drowned out by the noisy background. Thus, noisecancellation may be activated by an optional step 345. Steps 340 and 345are described in more detail later.

At 350 the device executes the command, upon receiving the code from thecomputer. At 355, the execution of the command is verified. At thispoint, flow control is transferred back to step 310 if available,otherwise to step 315.

FIG. 4 shows details of the “interpret control information” step 320. At400, the control information is received by the computer. Next, at 405,the information is converted to a command. As previously noted, theconversion is done on either key inputs or voice inputs. Step 410determines whether the command is a display command, i.e., a command forthe device to perform some kind of display function, including play,rewind, fast forward, volume up and down. If the command is determinedto be a display command, flow control is transferred to step 310 ifavailable, otherwise to step 315. If the command is not a displaycommand, it is examined at step 415 to determine whether it changes thecontext of the current system.

The context of the system determines what options are available to theuser. Examples of context changing command include commands that selectdifferent categories of content, such as “music”, “movie”, etc. Acontext changing command leads to step 425, where the context ischanged. A non-context changing command leads to step 420, where theinterpretations of the command are searched and displayed. Details ofstep 420 are discussed below.

At 430 relevant options for the current context are displayed. Forexample, in one embodiment, if the command is “system”, the relevantoptions are “music” and “movies”. If the command is “music”, therelevant options are a listing of all the albums stored in the mediasource. If the command is the title of one album, the relevant optionsare all the tracks in that album. In other embodiments, the relevantoptions associated with the commands may vary.

At 440 the system checks to see whether there is more controlinformation available from the user input. If there is more information,flow control is returned to step 400 to repeat the process. If no moreinformation is available, flow control is sent to step 325 if available,and otherwise to step 330.

FIG. 5 illustrates details of the “search for interpretation” step 420.At 500, a non-context changing command is received. Examples of suchcommands include commands for searching certain items based on certaincriteria. At 505, the system searches for items that match the command.At 510 the system determines whether there is a unique match. If thereis not a unique match, the set of search results are displayed, and flowcontrol returns to step 315 if available, otherwise to step 320. Forexample, the command may be the name for a band, and the system searchesfor the band name and returns the album titles by that band stored onthe media source. In one embodiment, the system displays the searchresults sorted by user preference, with the most favorite ones listed ontop. In one embodiment, the items the user has not played previously arelisted first. In certain embodiments, the search results are displayedalphabetically.

In one embodiment, the system displays increasingly more search resultswhile awaiting the user's input. Initially, only a few of the searchresults are displayed. As the user waits to make a selection, a few moreresults are added to the display every few seconds, until all theresults are displayed or until the user makes a selection. This is auseful feature when there are many search results.

If a unique match is found from step 510, flow control is transferred tostep 515 where the system determines whether the match is playable. Ifthe match is playable, the item is queued in step 525 to be played. Ifthe match is not playable, items relating to the match found aredisplayed in step 530. Flow control is then transferred back to step 315if available, otherwise to step 320.

FIG. 6 illustrates details of the “verify command” step 325. This is anoptional step useful when there are multiple interpretations to acommand. For example, a user may select the same alias for more than onemedia title. Thus, a command of such an alias results in multipleinterpretations. For example, two movies titled “The Sixth Sense” and“Sense and Sensibility” may both be given the same alias by a user,“sense”. When the user says the command “sense” in the movie context,both titles are noted as interpretations of this alias command.

At 600 all the interpretations for a command are shown to the user. Inone embodiment, the interpretations are displayed visually on theoutput. In one embodiment, the interpretations are displayed audibly onthe output. In certain embodiments, the interpretations are sent to theuser's telephone, which displays the interpretation informationappropriately. In some embodiments, a combination of the abovetechniques is used to show the interpretations.

At 605 the system determines whether there are multiple interpretations.If multiple interpretations exist, such as described in the aliasexample above, all the possible interpretations are shown to the user atstep 615. If the user selects an item from the interpretations shown,for example, “The Sixth Sense” from two titles both aliased to “Sense”,flow control is transferred to route command step 330. If the usercancels the command, or the system times out before the user takes anyfurther action, flow control is transferred to step 310 if available,otherwise to step 315.

If there is only a single interpretation, at step 610 the user is givena chance to confirm that this is indeed the selection he has in mind. Ifthe user confirms the selection, flow control is transferred to step 330where the command is routed. In one embodiment, if the user does nottake any further action, and the system times out, flow control is alsotransferred to step 330. If the user cancels, flow control istransferred to step 310, or step 315 if step 310 is unavailable.

FIG. 7 illustrates details of the “outputting translated command” step340. This step adjusts the output volume before starting to play theoutput. At step 700, the system checks whether the output device isalready playing. If the output device is already playing, no adjustmentneeds to be made and the command is output at step 720. Otherwise, thevolume of the output device is set to a mid range level at step 710 sothat once the device starts to play the volume is not too high or toolow.

When the user uses voice to send control information, the audio outputof the currently playing content creates feedback that interferes withthe processing of the voice commands. In some embodiments, both thecomputer and the output device receive the audio signal to be played. Itis desirable to take advantage of this fact to cancel the backgroundnoise due to feedback, so that the user's voice is more effectivelyprocessed.

FIG. 8 illustrates details of the optional “activate voice cancellation”step 345. In this embodiment, the input signal includes the user's voiceand feedback from the output signal. At 800 the system detects theoutput signal. At 805 the system receives feedback due to the outputsignal, and the reception is verified. At 810 the system determines thelevel of feedback. At 815 the system determines the time shift of thefeedback signal relative to the original output. In one embodiment, thetime shift is determined by comparing samples of the feedback signalwith samples of the original output. At 820, the time shift is used toalign the input signal and the output signal. Once the signals arealigned, the output signal is subtracted from the input to produce aclean version of the user's voice input. In other embodiments, othernoise cancellation techniques are used.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the noise cancellation process describedabove. The top diagram is an output waveform. The second diagram is aninput waveform. The third diagram shows the decomposition of the inputwaveform, which includes the user's voice signal and a time delayedoutput signal that is the feedback. The last diagram shows the inputafter the noise cancellation process cancels out the feedback, leaving aclean version of the user's voice signal.

FIG. 10 illustrates details of the “verify command execution” step 355.At 1000 the system monitors for content output. If the system detects anoutput signal, then it assumes that the command execution has succeededand system operation is normal. The content is verified at step 1005. Ifthe system does not detect an output signal, flow control is transferredto a diagnostic step 1010. In one embodiment, in the diagnostic step,the system polls the media source and the output device to find out whatis not working and why. In step 1015, the system outputs the diagnosticresult either visually or audibly.

FIG. 11 illustrates the process used to handle customizationinformation. The customization information is based on the user, andincludes preferences and aliases for items. At 1100, the user inputscustomization information that is received by the system. The systemdetermines whether the information is preference or alias. If theinformation received is preference, flow control is transferred to step1105, where the identification for the item displayed is retrieved. At1110, the preference information associated with the item is updated. Ifthe information is alias, flow control is transferred to step 1115,where the identification for the item displayed is retrieved. At 1120,the alias information is associated with the item and stored.

Thus, the phone control system provides considerable flexibility inaccessing media content. Media may be selected by name, partial name,metadata attribute including artist, writer, producer, director, actorname or partial name, album or series name or partial name or anycombination of these. A media category such as movie, song, TV show ormedia to purchase may be specified to aid in locating the correctcontent and related content. The phone control enables control ofnumerous entertainment devices, including televisions, stereo amplifiersand multichannel decoders, CD and DVD players, changers, and jukeboxes,TV set-top boxes for cable TV or satellite TV, PVR devices, Digitalmusic jukeboxes including compressed digital music (MP3/WMA) players,Digital video jukeboxes including compressed digital video players(DivX/WMV/MPEG) or a computer functioning as any of the above devices.

A telephone controlled media system has been disclosed. The system usesa telephone to control a media source. The user controls the systemusing voice, telephone keypad, or both. The system design simplifies theproblem of managing various media information and electronicentertainment devices, and supports advanced features for managing theuser's media contents.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. It should be noted that there are many alternative waysof implementing both the process and apparatus of the present invention.Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limitedto the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope andequivalents of the appended claims.

1-32. (canceled)
 33. A method comprising: presenting an interface on acellular telephone for controlling a media source; receiving a usercommand for controlling the media source; and sending a control signalfrom the cellular telephone to the media source, wherein the controlsignal includes control information corresponding to the command, andwherein the media source outputs information based on the command. 34.The method recited in claim 33 wherein the information is entertainmentmedia, and the media source is one or more of the following devices: atelevision, a stereo amplifier and multichannel decoder, a CD player, aDVD player, a CD changer, a DVD changer, a jukebox, a TV set-top box, aPVR device, a digital music player, a digital video jukebox, and/or acomputer functioning as any of the above devices.
 35. The method recitedin claim 33 wherein the control information includes voice instructions.36. The method recited in claim 33 wherein the cellular telephoneexecutes an application for controlling the media source.
 37. The methodrecited in claim 33 wherein the cellular telephone executes anapplication for controlling the media source, and the cellular telephoneincludes a touch screen.
 38. The method recited in claim 33 wherein: thecontrol information includes information entered from the cellulartelephone's keypad, wherein the keypad is a physical keypad or a virtualkeypad; and the keypad maps to a set of control functions.
 39. Themethod recited in claim 33 wherein the control information includes auser preference.
 40. The method recited in claim 33 further includingidentifying a user.
 41. The method recited in claim 33 further includingidentifying a user by using a password.
 42. The method recited in claim33 further including identifying a user by identifying the cellulartelephone.
 43. The method recited in claim 33 further includingidentifying a user by using biometrics.
 44. The method recited in claim33 further including: identifying a user; and storing and retrieving aset of customization information based on the user.
 45. The methodrecited in claim 33 wherein the control signal received from thecellular telephone includes an activation key.
 46. The method recited inclaim 33 wherein the commands include one or more of the following: acontext changing command, a display command, a Search command, a playcommand, a pause command, a skip command, a rewind command, a fastforward command, a volume up command, a volume down command, and a stopcommand.
 47. A computer program product, the computer program productbeing embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprisingcomputer instructions for: presenting an interface on a cellulartelephone for controlling a media source; receiving a user command forcontrolling the media source; and sending a control signal from thecellular telephone to the media source, wherein the control signalincludes control information corresponding to the command, and whereinthe media source outputs information based on the command.
 48. Thecomputer program product recited in claim 47 wherein the information isentertainment media, and the media source is one or more of thefollowing devices: a television, a stereo amplifier and multichanneldecoder, a CD player, a DVD player, a CD changer, a DVD changer, ajukebox, a TV set-top box, a PVR device, a digital music player, adigital video jukebox, and/or a computer functioning as any of the abovedevices.
 49. The computer program product recited in claim 47 whereinthe cellular telephone executes an application for controlling the mediasource.
 50. A system comprising: a processor of a cellular telephoneconfigured to: present an interface on a cellular telephone forcontrolling a media source; receive a user command for controlling themedia source; and send a control signal from the cellular telephone tothe media source, wherein the control signal includes controlinformation corresponding to the command, and wherein the media sourceoutputs information based on the command; and a memory coupled to theprocessor and configured to provide the processor with instructions. 51.The system recited in claim 50 wherein the information is entertainmentmedia, and the media source is one or more of the following devices: atelevision, a stereo amplifier and multichannel decoder, a CD player, aDVD player, a CD changer, a DVD changer, a jukebox, a TV set-top box, aPVR device, a digital music player, a digital video jukebox, and/or acomputer functioning as any of the above devices.
 52. The system recitedin claim 50 wherein the processor of the cellular telephone executes anapplication for controlling the media source.